Contributions are good

... but use your brain please. 

Apparently Sri Lanka has gotten a lot of contributions for tsunami relief that are simply useless.  In fact, they've gotten enough of it that they're going to start taxing it:

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Tropical Sri Lanka is grateful for a deluge of tsunami aid but said on Friday it drew the line at used winter jackets, blankets and other second-hand clothes and would tax unsuitable aid to discourage it.

Practical items for tsunami survivors, such as new clothes, tents, building materials and water purification equipment would not be taxed, the Ministry of Finance and Planning said in a statement.

"We want to discourage the importation and donation of used clothes. Some of the stuff cannot be used," said a senior finance ministry official who asked not to be identified.

"I think they have been sent with good intention. Maybe  they thought Sri Lanka was on the South Pole," he told Reuters.

This may sound a little harsh until you think about it.  All the time and resources that ends up getting burned transporting items that cannot be used by recipients takes away from resources needed to get them stuff they can actually use.  Contributing items that are worthless does more harm than good.

 

Comments

[elf108]

I fault the agencies that are sending the stuff over to these people. If they are going to send aid, they need to know what items are needed. Stuff should be screened before it is sent. This would eleminate sending winter stuff to a tropical climate. The winter stuff could have been kept and sent to other parts of the world that would need those items.

It is great that people want to help, but a little common sense would go a long way here!